[Woodcarver] marbling a wooden carved plinth

[maricha]

Messagewow WOW susan, what a wonderful recipe. i cannot wait to try it and it creates great images of the possibilities of marbelizing with the different timbers and grain.  the way you talk about the recipe and the manner you describe it is also almost like experimenting with a delicious cake. thank you so much. i am doing some maquettes in clay as models for my sculptures, so after they have been fired, i will try your recipe on them first, then on different carved bases.  you are a fountain of information.
THANKS
maricha
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Classic Carving Patterns 
  To: '[Woodcarver]' 
  Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 6:53 PM
  Subject: RE: [Woodcarver] marbling a wooden carved plinth


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  Good Morning Marcia,

  I haven't  tried marbleizing with wood carving but we use to do a technique for ceramics years ago.

  Working in acrylics we would base coat the work first with a pale gray tone over everything.  Then using a wool sponge (one of those with the great big holes that are just great for the bath tub) we would thin some medium gray acrylic, pat lightly on a cloth to remove the excess moisture, then tap the piece in a random pattern.  These two steps gave a mottled type of background.  Let dry very well.

  The marbleizing fun came next.  Get a large bucket, big enough to dunk your piece.  Now make several thinned mixtures of turpentine and oil color in varying shades of blue gray, brown gray, and off white.  Keep the oil mixtures close to each other in tonal value and color. A hint of color change and value change works better than a dramatic color change.  So when you can just see that the gray has turned blue or just turned brown is better than 'it's Brown or it's Blue' changes.  A good test for the thinning process with the turp is that it is just right when you can start to read the newspaper writing through a small drop or puddle of color.

  Fill the bucket with cold water and add about a tablespoon of thinned oil color to it.  The oil color will float on top of the water in a puddle.  Use a spoon handle to swish the oil once then slowly dunk your piece.  You don't want the entire water surface coated ... you want it to look like the filling in a brown sugar cinnamon bun.  As the ceramics went down into the water it picked up the oil mixture in a very random swirling motion.  We would let that 'sort of dry', which usually meant it had stopped dripping but still had some shine to the oil color.  While it dries clean your bucket and get ready to dip again with a new color.  You can use as many oil colors as you want, but three usually was a good number.

  With ceramics there is a hole in the bottom of the piece where the mold opening was, which was great for holding on to during the dipping process.  With a wood carving you might want to add a eye hook to the bottom both for holding and for hanging while it drips.

  Once you have several swirled oil colors added and the piece has again 'sort of dried' use an old toothbrush and add just a few splatters of whatever oil mixture you have left over.  When you are done you will have a varied background of shades of gray with pale and changing swirls of oil gray tones, then a few spots-splatters of more solid oil color.  Plus as you start with the piece entirely coated with acrylics and you are only dipping the work not soaking the work, the wood shouldn't get excessively wet in the process.

  This is fun to do, but PLEASE practice it first on something you don't mind ruining as it does take a little practice to get the oil to swirl just right.

  Hope this helps.

  Susan

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    -----Original Message-----
    From: woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net [mailto:woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net] On Behalf Of maricha
    Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:16 AM
    To: [Woodcarver]
    Subject: [Woodcarver] marbling a wooden carved plinth


    hi folks,
    am experimenting with different effects on bases and plinths for my work... have been able to ebonize quite well, bronze effect quite no problem, but am having difficulty with the marblelizing effect? if any one has any suggestions, your help would be much appreciated./   thanks in advance.
    cheers
    maricha
    http://www.oldjoe.org/MarichOxley/html


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